Anyone else diggin' this super rehashy series? Been playing these games for 10 years now aaaannnddd somehow still have fun despite the very low-lows (Yakuza 0 and the fact that they never move away from Kamurocho). Yakuza 6 was a high note to me an great way for Kiryu/Haruka ta go out!

Recent developments are making me kinda wary. First the Fist of the North Star reskin, then the next main character of the main series debuting first in a spinoff Asia-only online title, and now Judge Eyes which is literally a reskin! It also didn't help tha the Yakuza 1 & 2 remakes were kinda "eh".

I like running around "towns" pounding on dudes an messing around with side stuff pretty well but the formula was getting stretched thin well before the most recent titles got announced. An yet here I am replaying Yakuza 2! Just a testament to how fun they are... but I'm soooo passing on the spinoffs.

I dun think they every resisted releasing 'em outside of Asia for that reason. Any delays or worries over localizations were because each game bombed bigtime. Yakuza 3 with its butchered localization sold the best of the lot which is why 4 and the kusoge Dead Souls were pushed out over here. Yakuza 0 finally got peeps in the west interested in the series so now they've been releasing 2+ games a year over here to catchup & cash in!

They also put out a survey asking if people want the spinoffs brought over which at the very least implies both Samurai era games. Much like with Dragon Quest even in the darkest days I had no doubts Yakuza would continue seeing the light of day in the west. An that was made blatantly apparent when 0 / K1 were announced for release before even a single (digital-only) copy of the long delayed Yakuza 5 had been sold.

An nopes! idk how ta play mahjong or shogi or half the other side-games in the series!